How to choose your internal hard drive?


As part of the operation ASUS PCDIY, that we made with ASUS ROG, it was a question of mounting a complete and identifiable / purchasable configuration directly from their site. More information in our article: Build your PC Gamer well in 2022. For the occasion, we have mounted three SSDs of different types and brands:

If you do not know ADATA and their SSDs, we invite you to read our article “How to choose your SSD? » . It will allow you to learn more about how SSDs work, but also how to choose them at ADATA.

To return to the choice of internal hard drive, the three points that should guide your choices are as follows:

  • The intended use (office, game, encoding, etc.)
  • Your motherboard specs
  • The price

Identify types of internal hard drives

Computing is not new, the components have continued to evolve over time, improving storage, but also the speed of use.

mechanical hard drive

Parent of all those already existing, the mechanical hard disk, also called HDD, is the most common means of storage. Whatever your computer affinity, you’ve seen one. Widely used for office automation, HDDs havestorage capacity far beyond other hard drives. However, write and read speed is the lowest on the market. As a bonus, this type of hard drive is noisy, but also sensitive to falls or breakage due to its mechanical composition. To put it simply, the latter consists of several discs and heads read and write information on them.

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SSD

Very similar in shape to the HDD, the SSD hard drive is much faster in writing and reading. It drastically improves the launch speed of your computer as well as in-game loading. Composed only of electronic chips, it is less sensitive to falls. It also uses SATA connectors, and is also available in several more or less large formats. Destined, eventually, to replace the HDD, it is still quite expensive depending on the desired capacity.

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M.2 SSD

With the evolution of computing, games and processing and encoding software, manufacturers had to offer a scalable solution. Their use, requiring a specific NVMe port, is currently only available on the latest motherboards on the market. They therefore remain a little less accessible than the Classic HDD and SSD. However, its operating speed is even higher than SSDs. We also note that prices fluctuate depending on speed and capacity, but do not greatly exceed those of SSDs.

Finally regarding the M.2 SSD, having a port that can accommodate them is not enough. It is also necessary to take into account the heating of the component. If on some motherboards, like the ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO (LGA1700), we have dedicated areas equipped with heatsinks, this is not the case for all CMs. Thus, it will be necessary to choose an M.2 SSD equipped with a heat sink in order to use it optimally if the CM does not offer one. Some manufacturers such as XPG (ADATA) offer the device as a kit.

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PS5-compatible M.2 SSD

The evolution of consoles and their read/write capacity has forced manufacturers to offer solutions that can be adapted to them. If the Xbox Series offers a hard drive assigned and stamped Microsoft, the PS5 as for it leaves free choice to the user to use the peripheral which corresponds to him. However, if we can connect external and internal hard drives to these consoles, not all allow simultaneous storage and play. Indeed, a specific write/read speed is required by the console to be able to use the games stored in the heart of these discs, otherwise they are only used to store the games in order to be able to reintegrate them into the console later. .

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M.2 SSDs have the necessary capacities for this, only downside, the heatsink was too big to fit into the designated space in the PS5. The new M.2 SSD drives, known as PS5 compatible, offer suitable read/write speeds, but also a lower heatsink to be able to integrate the console. You can find more information by reading our article “How to choose and install an M.2 SSD optimized for the PS5?” “.

Identify the possibilities of your motherboard

For the occasion, in partnership with ASUS, we have produced an article allowing you to choose the best motherboard. The latter therefore a first information as to the type of mountable hard disk, but also the acceptable speeds. For our case, we use the ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO (LGA1700).

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Its characteristics are as follows:

  • Improved cooling design
  • Large VRM heatsinks and aluminum I/O shield
  • Highly conductive thermal protection
  • Three M.2 heatsinks with two backplates
  • Liquid Cooling Zone
  • ROG Hyper M.2 card with heatsinks
  • Six SATA ports

We therefore note that it has up to 3 dedicated spaces equipped with cooling systems to mount M.2 SSD as well as 6 SATA ports for classic HDD and SDD. To finish, an expansion card is available in the packaging to install up to 2 additional M.2 SSDs.

Mount and use an M.2 SSD

Although handling may seem difficult, it remains quite innate provided you respect the material used. For the map ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO (LGA1700), the protective caps of the M.2 installation areas must be unscrewed. Then, make sure that your M.2 SSDs are not equipped with a heatsink, otherwise it will have to be gently removed by gently passing a spatula between the heatsink and the M.2 disk.

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Once the space has been freed up, simply position the M.2 SSD flat in front of the front connector of slide it in. Be careful not to damage the pins by avoiding too much force during installation. The interlocking of the two elements must be done gently and fairly easily. Thereafter, the M.2 SSD should rise to a 45° position.

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The hardest part is now behind you. Press the M.2 against the motherboard before locking it with the plastic pin. Reassemble the plate by pressing a little to ensure that it fits well with the SSD. Put it all back together and enjoy!

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Once your computer is on, don’t be surprised if you don’t find the hard drive among those that can be used. To do this, you need to go to disk management by typing “format” in your search bar and open “Create and format hard disk partitions”. Finally, follow the steps below and finally enjoy your new storage space.

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